


Abandoned

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: Canon Era, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-27 22:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17170490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Tumbler visits the Jacobs house for the first time.





	Abandoned

The Jacobs house had a strange quality about it that made ten people seem like a crowd. The five people who lived there fit comfortably inside its walls, but only just. The surprise addition of Blink, Mush, Skittery, and Tumbler made David feel like he was in the midst of a huge swarm of people, even though he’d only just finished walking with Jack through the five o’clock after-work rush of the New York City streets. The other boys had met them at the door, having been invited over by Les, because it was his birthday in two days and apparently he didn’t want to wait.

David wasn’t proud of the face that he made upon opening up the door and seeing them all there waiting for him. He wasn’t annoyed at them for showing up, just confused, because they’d never done that before. 

“Now Mama says we can eat my cake tonight,” Les said in way of explanation. Mush shrugged at David, and Skittery looked uncomfortable. Blink was busy looking through the photographs on the mantel piece, and Tumbler was beneath it, examining the cloth flowers that hung off of it with interest. 

“Great!” David said quickly. “Good. It’s good cake. You guys will like it.”

Jack laughed at him, and David ducked into the kitchen. In truth, he wasn’t used to having guests who weren’t Jack, but he knew enough about the theoretical side of having people over to know that he ought to find them something to drink. He ended up having to wash a few cups that had been in the sink over night, because he’d been lax on helping out with the dishes since he started selling papes, and his parents had been more than usually inclined to indulge him, under the grounds that he might be tired after a long day’s work. Mama gave him a small smile, and continued to chop up carrots and celery. She had a worried look on her face that David understood. They’d be adding a lot of water to the soup tonight. 

“Give them milk to drink,” Mama suggested, with an appraising look at the assembled glasses, and David did as he was told, distributing all the milk that they had on hand evenly between the cups. It was well received. Mush grinned, and Blink thrust his glass in David’s direction, as if to make a toast. 

“You drink up kid, it’s good for your bones,” Skittery said, giving his glass over to Tumbler after he finished his milk in less than ten seconds. 

“What about your bones?” Tumbler asked. 

“I’m near eighteen. Already got all of me bones, far as I can tell. You still got a few left to grow,” Skittery explained. 

David might have said something about that, but Jack slung his arm over his shoulder. “Ain’t going to take any for yourself?” Jack asked.

David shrugged, and Jack passed his glass over for David to take a sip out of. David did take a little, and then passed it back to Jack, who also took a small gulp before passing it back to him. Probably Jack needed the drink more than David did, but it was just really nice to sit there with Jack’s arm around him, passing the cup back and forth; it was silly and stupid and dumb, but for some reason it made David smile. Tumbler finished his own milk before David and Jack were a quarter of the way through theirs, and glanced up at them with a grin on his face, and a rim of white above his upper lip. Jack looked at David, who nodded, before handing their drink over to Tumbler as well. 

Les said at that point that he wanted to play a game. Mush suggested sword fighting, since he knew that was Les’s favorite, but Sarah raised her eyebrows in alarm and quickly announced to the assembled newsboys just how much she enjoyed watching them at marbles, and wanted to learn how to play.

“David’s a stick in the mud and won’t teach me,” Sarah added with a small smile. David didn’t play himself, but since marbles were a lot less likely to break things, David let her get away with that comment. Anyway, Mush was really excited to teach her, and even Skittery brightened at the prospect. 

Tumbler finished his third glass of milk, and wandered into the kitchen, in search of more to eat. 

———

“Your milk is really good,” Tumbler said, looking at Les’s Mama with what he knew was a winning smile. He was hungry. He was just about always hungry. Skits said he was a bottomless pit, and Tumbler thought he was probably right. One time he’d gotten a lady baker to give him a whole loaf of bread, and he’d gobbled up with whole thing right then and there. Hell, if she’d given him ten, he would’ve eaten them all right away too. When you got food like that, you had to eat it, in case nobody wanted to give you more later, but the really awful thing was that no matter how much Tumbler managed to eat when the eating was good, he was always hungry again the next day. That’s what being a bottomless pit, who still had a bunch more bones to grow, did to a kid. Tumbler could feel Mrs. Jacobs looking at him, and he just hoped that she was thinking about how small he was and how hungry he must be. 

“I’m afraid we’re out of milk,” Mrs. Jacobs said, looking like she wanted to sigh. Tumbler’s heart sank, and then soared when he noticed she was opening up one of the cabinets. “Here dear,” she said, in that affectionate way women had some of the time, “Have an apple.” 

“Thanks Lady,” Tumbler said. He tossed the apple up in the air, caught it, and then remembered that Les’s Mama was old and needed to be talked to like an old person. “Ma’am,” he amended quickly. Les’s Mama smiled down at him as he took a bite of his apple, relishing how crisp and fresh it tasted. Les ate better than him, that was for sure. He’d have to play that up. He finished up the apple, and Les’s Mama went back to cutting up her vegetables.

“What’s that?” Tumbler asked, pointing to the bits of chopped up carrot on the counter. 

“Don’t you know dear?” Les’s Mama asked, brow creasing. Tumbler sensed victory in that expression.

“No,” he lied. “Just that it’s a.. a fruit! Poor kids like me don’t get no fruits. Just gruel. All the time. For every meal. Always gruel. Nothin’ else, not never. That’s why I’s so short. Anyways, I never had a..um…a bananar before. That’s what the stringy green ones are called, right?” 

“The orange ones are carrots, and the green ones are celery.” 

“Oooh,” Tumbler said, slapping his forehead, like he couldn’t believed he could have gotten something like that wrong. “Got it. Are they any good?” 

Mama Jacobs clicked her teeth, and found a carrot and a stick of celery to hand over to Tumbler, who had in reality tried both in the past. He liked carrots better, so he ate the carrot first.

“Is chocolate good?” Tumbler asked. “I read about it sometimes. I can even spell it. C-H-O-C-O-L-A-T-E.”

“That’s excellent!” Said Mama Jacobs enthusiastically. 

“I never tried it though.”

“You’ll try some chocolate cake after dinner, though I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re full to bursting by then, at the rate you’re going.” 

Tumbler frowned. That was a pretty good indication that he needed to slow down, but there was so much food in this house. He could practically sense it around him, and he didn’t know if Les would ask him back again anytime soon. 

“I ever tell you I used to have a Mama?” Tumbler asked, switching tactics. “Three of ‘em, but none of ‘em were as nice and pretty as you.” 

“Three?” Repeated Mrs. Jacobs, in obvious disbelief. It was funny, actually, that this should be the thing she didn’t believe, because it was true. Tumblr nodded. 

“Don’t remember the first one. Skits said I definitely had a first one, because I came outta her loins.” 

Mrs. Jacobs’ eyes widened, and she cut her vegetables a little more quickly. 

“I thought he meant lions, like Mamas had to rent lions, so’s they could have babies, but actually they’s on your body. You have loins too. That’s how come you got so many kids. Anyways, lions wouldn’t get on very well in this city. They need room to roam about.” 

“Yes dear,” Mrs. Jacobs cut into a carrot, and handed Tumbler a little piece. “Lions are…well … Why don’t you tell me about the other two Mamas, poor thing.” 

“Um… Well, one of ‘em got me out of the orphanage when I was a baby. My name when I first got dropped off at the orphanage was Herbert, but she called me Joe, like Joseph in the bible. The nuns told me so. Guess I thought I was really her kid, but then she got knocked up and didn’t need me ‘round no more, so she gave me back, then I had to be Herbert again, ‘cause the nuns didn’t wanna call me Joe.” 

Tumber put his hands behind his back, looking up at Mrs. Jacobs with the most winsome expression he knew how to make. There were a lot of bad things about being as little as he was, but Tumbler knew full well how to use looking innocent and cute to his full advantage. Mrs. Jacobs paused in what she was doing, to put her hands on Tumbler’s shoulders. She shook her head, and brushed a lock of hair out of his face. 

“No, I don’t see how anybody could do such a thing,” she said affectionately. The warmth in her tone was unfamiliar to Tumbler, and made him want to squirm out of her grasp. 

“The third Mama named me Alexander, but she only lasted twenty minutes,” Tumbler said, ducking away, and raking a hand through his hair to fix it back the way it usually was. “On account of she was a fine lady, and I forgot to wipe my shoes before going into her house. Looked like a real nice joint, too,” Tumbler said. 

Mrs. Jacobs sighed, and muttered under her breath about ‘some people’. Tumbler wished she would mutter about chocolate cake instead. He’d given her something, after all. Most of the guys were real careful with what they said about their pasts, and Tumbler figured a detailed description like his ought to earn at least half a cake in and of itself. 

“I learned my lesson, though,” Tumbler said. “Now I always wipe my shoes ‘fore I go into a house. Not that I got a lot of shoes left to wipe.” To demonstrate, Tumbler kicked up his foot, revealing the big hole in the sole of the left shoes.

“We’ll have to see what we can do about that,” said Mrs. Jacobs, looking very worried, probably, Tumbler guessed, because she was worried about his lack of decent footwear. 

As it turned out, he was right. By the time he left the Jacobs home that night, he still didn’t have any shoes, but he did have three pairs of new socks, in addition to nearly a quarter of Les’s birthday cake.


End file.
